We wake up late and pack and pick up our car - Fira is crazy, busy with the new cruise ships in the bay. After some confusion and difficulty I get the car (tiny toyota) and park it nearby. Then we head back into town and book some ferry tickets (another week’s plans laid!)
587 steps lead down to the harbour on a winding path (about 300m vertically), We walk down! The going is pretty tough as the spaces between steps are sloped. There are lots of tourists and donkeys (with pretty beaded saddles and bridles). The scent of donkey shit is redolent in the air. We go slowly and take pictures and eventually get to the old harbour below which we get some good fizzy fruit juice and sit by the water.
We brave the tourist shops some of which are ‘caved’ into the side of the cliffs. There are beautiful pictures of Santorini painted on old wood as well as all sorts of things made from volcanic pumice. Then we take the cable car back up (30 mins down - 2 mins up). As we head to our car we get some iced coffee and later ice-cream (bitter chocolate and pistachio were brilliant).
Then we drive. We get a bit lost and the narrow roadways and crazy Greeks are a bit challenging. Eventually we find a petrol station and head to Oia. Cara gets a bad migraine and we have serious GPS problems. Also I discover the coordinates for our Oia hotel are wrong.